


Ranking Partners

by Rasmoo



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:14:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27282496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rasmoo/pseuds/Rasmoo
Summary: Due to an event with his fave character and end of quarter crunch happening at the same time, Itaru has been losing more sleep than usual trying to keep up with both. That is, until he gets unexpected help.
Relationships: Chigasaki Itaru/Utsuki Chikage
Comments: 5
Kudos: 87





	1. Chapter 1

“See you tomorrow Chigasaki-san. Thank you for your hard work today.”

“Thank you. I look forward to working with you tomorrow.” 

Itaru lightly waved at his still working coworker before leaving the room. Briskly walking through the empty hallway, he pulled out his phone.

_11:34 PM, LP fully restored two hours ago._

He quickly surveyed his surroundings and after making sure no one was around, he opened the app and began to expend his LP.

The worst outcome had happened, a yearly misfortune that haunts the dreams of the brunette: The overlap between the end of quarter crunch and an event with his favorite character as the ranking reward.

As Itaru entered the elevator, he quickly pocketed his phone and greeted the figure standing before him.

“Good work today, Chigasaki. You’re heading home now too?”

“Ah, it’s you senpai?” He pulled out his phone once again, “Yeah I am. Overtime’s a real killer.”

“Make sure you rest properly when we get home. Your bags have been worse than usual lately.”

“... You’re really a cheat senpai. I even had Azami teach me how to better apply foundation the other day yet you can see through it straight away.”

As his LP count hit zero, Itaru looked up at the green haired cheat and smiled.

“If you’re so worried for your cute junior, you should play for me while I sleep.” He teased.

“Hmm…” Chikage hummed, “Maybe if you treat me to some curry from this new restaurant that’s opening on Saturday I will.” He nonchalantly offered.

Itaru had a momentary look of shock on his face before it returned to a smile. “Sure.”

* * *

“Hwah…” the brunette yawned, wiping away the newly formed tears around his eyes. His head was pounding and his mind was in a frenzied daze.

_Ah… I think I’m reaching my limit._

After switching off with Chikage for several days, the last minute grind of the final hours of the event has begun.

_I’m 100k above the border but… these bastards are crazy._ Itaru’s gaze shifted to the sleeping figure beside him and his lips slightly curled upwards. _No match for him though._

Emptying his remaining LP and buying yet another pack of dia, Itaru shook the body beside him.

“Sen~pai it’s your turn.” 

Chikage jolted up and immediately put on his glasses. 

“Uwah, that scares me every time.” Itaru lightheartedly chuckled as he handed his phone to his senior.

The green haired man smiled. “You could stand to get up faster too.”

“How mean, not everyone has the same skill set as you. I’m sleeping now.”

“Haha, good night Chigasaki.” Chikage responded as he began to play.

A few minutes passed and despite being supposedly tired, Itaru was unable to fall asleep. After tossing and turning several times, he gave up trying to find a comfortable enough position to sleep.

The brunette rolled over, facing the bespectacled man’s back. His thoughts began to drift as he watched the subtle movement of his senior’s arms as he played.

_… To think a day would come where I would have someone rank with me like this._

Itaru closed his eyes, his consciousness beginning to fade away.

_I wonder what would happen if the me back then knew that he would be lucky enough to make friends that would do this for him or even wholeheartedly accept him for who he is…_

“Hey senpai. Thank you for doing this for me. I mean it. I never would have thought I would meet someone like you back then. You’re really the nicest senior I could have asked for...”

Chikage slightly turned back and warmly smiled at his lightly snoring junior before lightly patting him on the head.

“How sentimental of you… You’re a cheat too if you say something that cute while half asleep.”

A soft voice broke through the monotonous rhythm of tapping, “Thank you too for giving me a new family I can come back to.”

His ears reddened. “Heh. I must be getting sentimental too if I’m able to say something like that.” 

He took a small breath and cracked his knuckles.

“Let’s get Chigasaki that SSR.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Senpai!” Itaru loudly called out, his voice barely containing his excitement as he hurriedly caught up to said senior after practice was over for the day.

“Hm? You seem excited, what happened?” Chikage asked, masking his curiosity as to why Itaru was strangely enthusiastic.

“This is the curry restaurant you wanted me to take you to right? Next weekend it’s gonna have a collab with GB-”

“GB?”

“The game you helped me rank in. You had fun didn’t you? I expected to spend a lot more for that maxed SSR but you got a lot more points than you should have if you just emptied my LP every hour.”

“... I guess it was alright.”

“Heh. Whatever you say.” 

Itaru’s smile slightly widened, his normally calm eyes were glinting with life reserved only for when he was talking about games.

“So what do you say? Wanna take a day off together and go this Saturday?”

Chikage put his hand over his mouth, seemingly thinking about his schedule that day before responding with a simple, “Sure.”

After a triumphant victory fist pump, Itaru said his farewells and hurriedly went ahead to their shared room to call in for work.

Watching the jubilant gamer’s back disappear in the distance, Chikage’s smile only grew from behind his hand.

_I really do prefer this cute Chigasaki afterall._

* * *

After sloughing through the rest of the week of hellish work, the awaited Saturday had finally arrived.

The pair had already notified Omi and Izumi that they don’t need to make their portion of lunch that day and left the dorm early in the morning as urged by Itaru.

“... There really is a line already.” Chikage said, a little taken back at seeing the dedication of mobage gamers first hand.

“I told you didn’t I?” Itaru responded as the two made their way to the back of the line.

Although the line itself wasn’t long at the moment, it was bound to only get longer as the day dragged on.

The twenty or so minutes of wait time went by fairly quickly as Itaru rambled about the lore and characters of his mobage all the while showing off story integral plot CGs and illustrations to his seemingly disinterested senior who committed every word to memory.

Upon entering the restaurant, the brunette looked around in awe, admiring and gushing about the level of detail in the decorations within the restaurant as well as the menu.

“Senpai, I recommend this for you.” he pointed at a picture of a deathly red plate of curry.

“God killer curry?”

“In the in game description, it’s described as a curry so spicy even god can't finish.” 

“Even a god huh?” Chikage’s lips curved into a smirk. “We’ll see about that.”

After a lengthy wait time, the waiter wobbled towards their table with a plethora of food, slowly setting each dish down in an attempt to keep their balance.

“... You really did order a lot.” The green haired man said as he eyed the assortment of game styled dishes scattered atop the table.

“Don’t worry about finishing, I already told everyone back at the dorm that I’ll be bringing home takeout for dinner.” Itaru said as he showed off the text on his phone followed by the excited messages of the other Mankai members. 

Chikage inwardly sighed as he knew that he would be the one carrying home most of the food.

Turning his attention to his food, the bespectacled man began to position his phone to take a picture of his first spoonful of curry. Meanwhile, his companion began to gather the still wrapped restaurant limited goodies that came with each dish.

Although the gamer took care to open each item with care, his underlying excitement was much like a child on Christmas Day.

Upon pulling out the last bromide from its wrapping, Itaru let out an unexpectedly loud squeal as he held the last possible event exclusive piece of merch in his hand.

Although the embarrassing sound was luckily drowned out by the hustle and bustle of the restaurant, it was unfortunately still loud enough for his senior across the table to hear.

“Is something wrong?” Said senior asked, lightly sprinkling in more spices into his already bright red curry.

“Oh, I just used up the rest of my gacha luck to get all of the limited merch he-“ Itaru coolly responded in an attempt to hide his embarrassment before his eyes widened in response to what the green haired man was doing. 

“Wait, you’re seriously adding more spice to that?”

The curry already looked like it came from the inside of a volcano before, but now it looked like it was made from the very depths of hell.

Chikage nonchalantly smiled as he gulped another spoonful down. 

“You wanna try some Chigasaki?”

“I think I’ll pass… How scary, my senpai can eat something spicier than a god can with no issues…”

“My stats are unbeatable after all.” The spice-aholic chuckled. 

With the scent of the feast before him wafting into his nose as well as the sight of his senior happily munching his curry from the devil, Itaru swiftly put the merch back into their packets, and finally began to dig into his meal.

* * *

“Hah… I’m stuffed.” The brunette grumbled as he held several takeout boxes in his arms with his merch tucked safely into the very bottom takeout box.

“You ate a lot more than I expected.” His senior responded, carrying a few more boxes than the man beside him.

“You ate three plates of that curry you summoned from hell! Just the smell of the last one was enough to give my stomach a burn debuff…”

As the pair continued to bicker on their trip back to the dorm, Chikage couldn’t help but stare Itaru’s face.

_… He’s been smiling all day, how cute. It was worth looking into future anime and game restaurant collabs nearby._

_..._

_I really do prefer this cute Chigasaki._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up writing a continuation but it was longer than I intended it to be oops. Anyway, thank you for taking time to read this and I hope you enjoyed it too!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey ho! This was my first fanfic so I still have a lot to improve on but it was fun to write. I'm not sure how well I was able to characterize Chikage and Itaru but I hope I did them justice. Thank you for checking this fic out and I hope you liked it! I might write ChikaIta curry date but we'll see :3


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